Posted: 6/13/07

SBC messengers re-elect Page president;
select Richards, Redmond as vice presidents

By Lonnie Wilkey

Baptist and Reflector

SAN ANTONIO—South Carolina pastor Frank Page was elected unopposed June 12 for a second one-year term as president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Messengers also elected Jim Richards, executive director of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, as first vice president, and African American pastor Eric Redmond of Hillcrest Baptist Church, Temple Hills, Md., as second vice president.

Page’s re-election ended speculation that he would encounter opposition for a second term. Page’s election as president last year over Ronnie Floyd of Arkansas and Jerry Sutton of Tennessee was considered an upset in most SBC circles because he was not the consensus choice of key SBC leaders.

Page’s election last year was considered a victory for supporters of the Cooperative Program, Southern Baptists’ unified plan of giving.

Page, pastor of First Baptist Church, Taylors, S.C., has been a leading advocate of the Cooperative Program as he has spoken at gatherings nationwide during his first year as president. His church gave $629,505 or 12.5 percent of its undesignated receipts through the Cooperative Program in 2006, according to the latest annual church profile.

Dale Morell, pastor of Maine Street Baptist Church, Brunswick, Maine, nominated Page for his second term.

He reminded messengers that just a year ago, many people didn’t really know Frank Page. “As you reflect on this year, you have seen his heart and spirit and how he responds. He has a passion for souls and for the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is one of a kind,” Morell observed.

Page thanked messengers following his re-election.

“I will serve for yet another year so that somehow I might bring glory to our Lord, to lift high his name, to continue to attempt to bring us together for the task of world missions and evangelization,” Page told messengers.

“I will not back up, back down, or back away from that which God has called and that in which we must be involved.”

During a press conference after his election, Page said he tried to hold true to his pledge last year to be more inclusive, while at the same time holding to his conservative beliefs.

“I said last year that I am a conservative and that I am in no way trying to undo what some have called the conservative resurgence,” Page said. “However, I have tried to be irenic and to be kind, and I will continue to do that.

“I have said many times that I believe the Bible, I’m just not angry about it. I stand by that; though there have been some who don’t appreciate that comment, so be it.”

Page said he does not lead by opinion polls. “I hope everybody would like what I do, but I know that is not going to happen, but I try to do the best I can as God leads.”

In response to a question as to whether his election unopposed was a sign of acceptance by SBC leaders who opposed him last year or an affirmation that he did a good job, Page acknowledged there were some who have liked for someone to run against him.

He noted, however, that it is a tradition that the incumbent stay for a second year, those who wanted to oppose him probably saw that effort as unwinnable.

“While I wish it (his re-election) was because I had just done a good job or they all loved me now, the truth is there was a calculated analysis and in that calculation it was decided best not to do that (oppose his election) this year,” Page said.

During his responses to questions posed during the press conference, Page reiterated stands he has taken this past year. Among them:

• An SBC database on sexual predators. “One instance of sexual abuse in a church is too much. We must be willing to do anything we can to inform and educate our churches on how to protect our precious children.” He stressed that having a database would not guarantee protection. “Any system can be abused.

• Baptist Faith & Message. Page was asked if the statement of faith is silent on a subject should an entity take action, as trustees of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary did recently when they established a policy on private prayer language. Page said that while he respects the trustee system he urges them to “not make doctrinal statements that go beyond the Baptist Faith & Message.”

• Baptisms. “We won’t increase baptisms until we are right with God,” Page said. “I am calling on people to beg God for spiritual renewal and revival.” He called on Baptists to not let distractions (speaking in tongues) to keep them from their primary task of “winning the world to Christ.”

Richards was elected as first vice president over Southern Baptist missionary David Rogers, son of former SBC president Adrian Rogers. Richards received 2,177 (68.7 percent) votes to 966 (30.5 percent) for Rogers.

In nominating Richards, Mac Brunson, pastor of First Baptist Church, Jacksonville, Fla., described him as a “builder of pastors, churches, and a state convention.”

Brunson noted that Richards has led the breakaway convention from 120 churches to 1,895 churches and also has led the convention to give 54 percent of its undesignated receipts through the Cooperative Program. He is a member of First Baptist Church, Fort Worth, which gave $134,964 or 12.3 percent of its undesignated receipts through the Cooperative Program in 2006.

Rogers was nominated by David Dykes, pastor of Green Acres Baptist Church, Tyler, Texas. Dykes stressed he was nominating Rogers, not because of his father, but because of his own qualifications—one who is dedicated his life to missions.

For the past 13 years, Rogers has served as a church planter and mobilization coordinator for the International Mission Board in Madrid Spain. Rogers was not at the convention due to the graduation of his son from high school in Spain, but Dykes said the family would be on stateside assignment for the next year, and Rogers could fulfill his responsibilities as first vice president if elected.

Rogers would have been the first missionary to hold an SBC office had he been elected. Rogers’ home church, Bellevue Baptist Church, Cordova, Tenn., gave $338,947 or 1.3 percent of its undesignated receipts through the Cooperative Program in 2006.

Redmond was elected second vice president over evangelist Bill Britt of Gallatin, Tenn. Redmond received 1,765 votes (61.69 percent) to 1,077 votes (37.64 percent) for Britt.

Redmond’s church gave $100,000 or 13.3 percent of its undesignated gifts through the Cooperative Program in 2006 while College Heights Baptist Church, Gallatin, Tenn., where Britt is a member, gave $48,631 or 3.4 percent through the Cooperative Program.

Two other officers were re-elected without opposition—John Yeats, interim pastor of Ridge Avenue Baptist Church, West Monroe, La., as recording secretary, and JimWells, director of missions for Tri-County Baptist Association in southwest Missouri, as registration secretary.

Posted: 6/13/07

SBC says doctrinal statement ‘sufficient,’
but impact on hiring remains unclear

By Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

SAN ANTONIO—The Southern Baptist Convention affirmed the Baptist Faith & Message June 12 as the “sufficient” doctrinal guide for its agencies and institutions. But SBC leaders immediately disagreed over whether the action will keep those agencies from adopting more restrictive policies.

The motion was supported by messengers who worry the SBC’s conservative leaders have gone too far in limiting participation in the 16 million-member convention. They cite controversial hiring guidelines, adopted last year at the International Mission Board, that exclude missionaries who practice a “private prayer language”—a type of speaking in tongues.

Supporters called the SBC vote—58 percent to 42 percent—a victory for more openness in the conservative-dominated convention. “This is the biggest decision in the Southern Baptist Convention in a decade,” said Oklahoma pastor Wade Burleson, an IMB trustee who has led opposition to the “private prayer” policy. “The SBC has said it doesn’t want the agencies going against the convention.”

“The consensus of the convention is to follow the Baptist Faith & Message,” said Rick Garner, pastor of Liberty Heights Baptist Church in Liberty Township, Ohio, who introduced the motion. “If they feel like they need to go beyond that … they will need to come back to the convention floor” to amend the doctrinal statement.

But two seminary presidents told messengers June 13 that, when hiring faculty members, they will use additional doctrinal restrictions not covered in the Baptist Faith & Message, such as opposition to abortion and gambling.

Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said doctrinal threats arise from time to time that are not covered in the SBC’s faith statement. “You don’t want to hire those who merely meet those requirements,” he said, but those who thoroughly meet the standards.

Phil Roberts, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, described the Baptist Faith & Message as a “minimalist statement” that does not comment on everything affirmed in the Bible.

Midwestern requires more of its employees than the doctrinal statement specifies, Roberts said. For instance, the Old Testament prohibits “cross-dressing,” he said during his seminary report. “Any morning that one of our Steves shows up dressed like an Eve, that will be the last day they work on our campus.”

The SBC-approved motion, which was adopted by the Executive Committee in February, affirms: “The Baptist Faith & Message is neither a creed, nor a complete statement of faith, nor final or infallible; nevertheless, we further acknowledge that it is the only consensus statement of doctrinal beliefs approved by the Southern Baptist Convention and as such is sufficient in its current form to guide trustees in their establishment of policies and practices of entities of the convention.”

SBC Executive Committee President Morris Chapman with those who say policies should not exceed the doctrinal statement.

“Any practice instituted by an entity in the Southern Baptist Convention that has the force of doctrine should be in accord with the Baptist Faith & Message and not exceed its boundaries unless and until it has been approved” by convention messengers, Chapman said during his annual adress.

“Secondly,” Chapman continued, “if an entity … adopts a confession of faith separate and distinct from the Baptist Faith & Message, and it includes a doctrine unsupported by our confessional statement, the entity should request approval from the convention prior to including the doctrine it its confession.”

During floor debate on Garner’s motion June 12, Jeremy Green, pastor of First Baptist Church of Joshua, Texas, agreed the doctrinal statement is “a sufficient guide, but the Baptist Faith & Message is not the only guide” for hiring. “I believe voting for this motion is a step in the wrong direction,” he said.

Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, spoke in favor of the motion, insisting the SBC agencies “should be subordinate to the Southern Baptist Convention.” Children don’t set the rules; parents do, he said.

McKissic, a trustee of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, ran afoul of trustee leaders recently when he acknowledged using a “private prayer language” and criticized the IMB for its hiring restriction. He said he lead his church to join the SBC on the basis of the Baptist Faith & Message, but “now decisions are being made that are not consistent with it.”

After the motion passed, Benjamin Cole, a pastor and blogger in Arlington, Texas, said the SBC establishment “will have a very difficult time” imposing restrictions that go beyond the doctrinal statement. But he warned, “The other side is going to say (the motion) doesn’t mean what it says.”

Messengers who voted on the motion seemed reluctant to add restrictions beyond the Baptist Faith & Message.

“Where do we stop?” said Joe Manning, pastor of First Baptist Church in Pearl City, Hawaii. “I believe the Baptist Faith & Message is a starting point, but there are so many issues that can’t be defined and that’s were the churches need to step in. … Who are we to dictate what (people) should or shouldn’t do in their private prayer closet?”

“I voted in favor of it, and I was happy to see that it passed,” said Sid Nichols, director of missions at Calhoun Baptist Association in Anniston, Ala. “I think the SBC ought to stand up and say ‘this is who we are and this is what we believe,’“ Nichols said. “And I believe that is what this motion does.”

In other business, the convention referred a motion to its Executive Committee that called for the SBC to study establishing a registry of clergy sexual offenders. The database would include ministers and church staff members “who have been credibly accused of, personally confessed to, or legally been convicted of sexual harassment or abuse.”

The database would be accessible to Southern Baptist churches and entities to help prevent future abuse. The motion, presented by Burleson, asked the Executive Committee to report its findings and recommendations no later than the 2008 convention.

Other motions referred to the Executive Committee were:

• To develop a conventionwide policy that would allow Southern Baptists who hold “differing interpretations” of speaking in tongues to be “full participants” in the SBC.

• Requiring nominees to SBC committees and boards to disclose any disagreements they have with the Baptist Faith & Message.

• Asking the Executive Committee to pay expenses for SBC officers to attend the annual convention. The motion was presented by outgoing second vice president Wiley Drake of Buena Park, Calif.

• Urging that the convention be help in cities which have not hosted the SBC in the last 20 years.

Several motions were referred to other entities:

• A motion requesting more ministries for handicapped people was referred to the Executive Committee and all SBC entities.

• Also referred to the Executive Committee and every other SBC entity was a motion asking each SBC agency or institution to study providing reports of its trustees’ attendance and voting records.

• A motion requesting more resources for one-staff-member churches was referred to Lifeway Christian Resources and the North American Mission Board.

•A motion requesting the American flag be presented by an honor guard during the annual meeting was referred to the committee on order of business.

Several motions were ruled out of order because they are under the purview of individual agencies’ trustees and not the convention:

• A motion to study the salaries of SBC seminary professors. Bart Barber of Farmersville, Texas, who offered the motion, argued it did not interfere with the seminaries’ governance because it only asked for a study, but messengers disagreed.

• A motion to instruct SBC agencies and institutions to avoid promoting the “emerging church.”

• A motion directing Lifeway Christian Resources to review its policy on distributing “fables and allegories.”

Posted: 6/14/07

Texas Baptist disaster relief workers join drill, provide special-needs assistance

By Barbara Bedrick

Texas Baptist Communications

DALLAS—Forecasters predicted Hurricane Brett would hit the Texas coast in less than 72 hours. But the impending disaster was only a lesson in survival, as Texas Baptists and hundreds of city, county and state disaster response teams raced through Texas’ first simulated hurricane under its revamped state disaster and evacuation plan.

In the wake of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina, Texas emergency management officials reworked the state’s response plan to make it more effective. In the recent drill, crews rushed to coordinate the simulated evacuation of more than 1 million people along the Texas Gulf Coast.

Working the drill from the group’s Dallas headquarters, Texas Baptist Men Disaster Relief Director Gary Smith lined up units and volunteers.

“Our role in this mock disaster drill was to support each of the eight hub evacuation cities along with some of the larger point to point shelters,” Smith explained.

As the simulated hurricane landfall deadline loomed 22 hours away, Smith designated locations for the organization’s 11 mobile disaster units, food supplies and volunteer crews who would provide 125,000 meals a day.

To handle the needs of about 200,000 people in the region who cannot evacuate themselves, Smith said the state contracted thousands of buses to ferry them to evacuation sites. But many of these people who cannot evacuate themselves will be moved from hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living homes. They will need transportation such as ambulances to carry them to shelters. Once there, many of them may be unable to feed themselves without help.

Texas Baptists have stepped in to address these “special-needs” evacuees. Partnering with Baptist Child & Family Services, TBM is developing a unit to address medical and dietary concerns.

“For the first time ever, we will have a special-needs feeding unit,” Smith said. “We’re ready to provide 16,000 meals a day at the San Antonio unit.”

Directing special-needs emergency care for the state, Baptist Child & Family Services opened and operated 12 special-needs shelters and cared for 1,700 people with medical, emotional and physical needs after Katrina and Rita hit.

The agency purchased a used 18-wheel tractor-trailer rig that will be stationed in San Antonio for special-needs individuals. TBM is equipping the unit with commercial tilt skillets, convection ovens and pots and pans. The group’s volunteers will prepare the meals.

Working with SYSCO Corporation, nutrition experts developed diets for people with medical and physical needs. Baptist Child & Family Services also plans to provide nurses, psychiatrists, physicians and other medical personnel.

Other major disaster concerns such as food, fuel and electricity also were addressed during the hurricane drill. One of the most significant positive developments, Smith noted, is the state’s arrangements to provide a refrigerated 18-wheel tractor-trailer rig to store food supplies. In the past, food often spoiled before it could be used. Texas emergency officials also have secured an 18-wheel tractor-trailer freezer rig, and a trailer to hold non-perishable goods.

A contract is in place with a fuel vendor who will deliver diesel to TBM sites so the group does not have to hunt for fuel to stay in operation. To help motorists trying to get to evacuation sites, the state has also designated service stations that will be equipped with commercial generators so pumps can be accessed.

The Baptist General Convention of Texas disaster response team is prepared to provide a frontline response with a team of crisis interventionists who are specially trained and certified by the National Organization for Victim Assistance. The convention also provides family and church assistance, as well as disaster relief grants.

Baptist churches who want to serve as shelter sites for hurricane or storm victims are encouraged to become certified by the Red Cross, Smith added.

For TBM disaster response or to volunteer, visit www.tbm.org . For BGCT disaster response assistance or to donate, go to www.bgct.org/disaster. Churches that want to provide special-needs shelter or volunteers , see www.bcfs.net

Posted: 6/14/07

Southern Baptists have been ‘fighting
the wrong battles,’ president insists

By Charlie Warren

Arkansas Baptist

SAN ANTONIO—Southern Baptist Convention President Frank Page challenged challenged Baptists to lay aside factionalism and cold-hearted legalism to develop a new strategic battle plan that goes beyond doctrinal rightness to speak the truth in love to a lost world.

To illustrate his message from Psalm 51:1-13, Page referred to France just prior to World War II. French leaders, particularly André Maginot, minister of war, poured enormous financial resources into a state-of-the-art defense system along the nation’s eastern border, with the exception of dense forests they considered impenetrable.

When war began, the German army marched through the forest and Paris fell within three weeks, Page noted. The Maginot line of defense had failed.

“We (Southern Baptists) have build our own Maginot line,” Page said. “We have built wonderful entities, programs, agencies and great churches, thinking we can hold off defeat of the enemy. But the enemy has outflacked us over and over.”

Baptists are guilty of an arrogance with which God is not pleased, he said. Page, pastor of First Baptist Church of Taylors, S.C., charged that instead of transforming the culture, it has transformed Southern Baptists.

“We hold our battle lines against flesh and blood,” he said. “Is this our only line of defense? … We are not the only game in town. … God has blessed us for a reason—not that we will become spiritually obese, but so we will be on mission for him.”

Satan has robbed Southern Baptists of integrity, fellowship, passion for the lost, the joy of salvation, humility, unity, relevance and a sense of godly balance, Page asserted.

“We have lost much and there is more to be lost,” he warned, adding the problem in the convention starts with each individual Southern Baptist.

“Where’s the joy God gave you when you were saved?” he asked. “You may be doctrinally right, but you sure don’t look very happy about it.”

King David, who wrote Psalm 51, “was painfully aware of his inadequacies. … We strut while we’re still sitting down,” Page said.

“This convention does not belong to you, and it sure does not belong to me. It is God’s. … Though we have significant differences, will you take my hand, and let’s work together to reach the lost for Christ?”

God wants Southern Baptists to speak the truth in love, whether they blog or don’t blog, Page said.

“When we speak the truth without love, it leads to a cold-hearted legalism the world sees as characteristic of Christians,” he warned.

To regain the victory, Page urged Southern Baptists to get right with God, confess our sins, plead for forgiveness and “a spiritual heart transplant” and seek revival.

“Our baptisms languish in a day when people are receptive to the gospel,” he said. “… It’s because we have not been right before God. … We’ve been fighting the wrong battles.”

He said the convention has returned to theological rightness, “praise God for that, but if we do not seek the hand of God, our churches will be right but empty. … The early church was met with persecution. … We are met with a yawn.”

Posted: 6/14/07

Global warming debate generates resolutions heat

By Marv Knox

Editor, Baptist Standard

SAN ANTONIO, Texas—Southern Baptist Convention messengers generated some heat during their annual meeting as they debated the government’s responsibility to address global warming.

They also stood by the SBC resolution committee’s decision not to address how many people actually populate Southern Baptist churches.

Otherwise, they quickly dispatched seven of eight proposed resolutions June 13.

The global warming resolution did not generate debate on its basic points: global temperatures have risen for decades, “scientific evidence does not support computer models of catastrophic human-induced global warming” and major steps to reduce greenhouse gases would unfairly impact the world’s poorest people.

But messengers disagreed over the SBC resolutions committee’s call for the government to do something about climate change.

The committee’s proposal encouraged “continued government funding to find definitive answers on the issue of human-induced global warming that are based on empirical facts and are free of ideology and partisanship.” It also supported “economically responsible government initiatives and funding to locate and implement viable energy alternatives” that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Bob Carpenter of Cedar Street Baptist Church in Holt, Mich., proposed deleting the two sections of the resolution that called for government action.

“For 70 years, beginning with the Franklin Roosevelt administration, we’ve endured expansion of government,” Carpenter said, calling government “part of the cause of the problem rather than the solution.”

The government cannot provide simple solutions to problems, he contended, adding, “hundreds of millions of tax dollars already are being spent” by the government on global warming. He insisted private enterprise is a founding principle of the country. “We solve problems … when government stays out of the way.”

“The (resolutions) committee does believe the government has a role to play,” countered committee member Martha Lawley. The resolution acknowledges God’s sovereignty, as well as individual responsibility, and it is balanced, she said.

However, Wiley Drake, the convention’s second vice president and pastor of First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, Calif., claimed the disputed portions of the resolution undermine the SBC’s stand for separation of church and state.

“This weakens this resolution, by asking the government to step in,” he said.

“This is not a church-state issue,” Lawley maintained. “The government does have a role to play” in dealing with global warming.

Although messengers voted to remove the sections calling for government involvement, resolutions committee Chairman Gerald Harris later told reporters the convention overwhelmingly supported the overall resolution.

“I felt messengers were enthusiastic in adopting the resolution,” said Harris, editor of the Christian Index newspaper in Georgia. “I saw very few hands against” final passage of the resolution.

The only other extended debate featured a suggested resolution the committee declined to propose.

Tom Ascol, pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Fla., noted he submitted a resolution on “integrity in church membership” that did not get past the committee.

While the convention’s annual survey claims SBC-affiliated churches are composed of 16.3 million members, only 6,138,776 of them attend a worship service in a typical week, Ascol said.

Southern Baptists should “repent of our failure to retain responsible church membership and our widespread failure to lovingly correct church members” when they lapse from regular church attendance, he added.

If the convention does not take seriously its responsibility to retain a regenerate church membership and to discipline members, then a call to repentance—the subject of an approved resolution—“is meaningless,” he insisted.

Ascol’s proposal “infringed upon the honored principle of church autonomy,” Harris responded. “The committee does not have authority to instruct churches on their membership.”

Malcolm Yarnell, a professor of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a member of Birchman Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, affirmed Ascol’s call for “regenerate church membership based on church discipline.” But he noted the proposal was not broad enough, since it didn’t address issues such as believers’ baptism by immersion.

“When we say we are a convention of 16 million people, we will say, tongue in cheek, ‘The CIA and the FBI can’t find half of those,’” noted Doug Richie of Pisgah Baptist Church in Excelsior Springs, Mo. “It does affect us corporately as a convention. This is a problem, and it is time we take responsibility for it.”

Ascol’s proposal failed to receive a two-thirds vote required to override the committee’s decision not to recommend the resolution.

All seven of the committee’s other resolutions passed without significant discussion or debate. They included:

• Child abuse. Messengers expressed their “deep level of moral outrage and concern at any instance of child victimization” and recommended reporting child abuse “in a timely and forthright manner.”

The resolution called for churches and convention organizations to perform criminal background checks on ministers, employees and volunteers, and it renounced individuals who commit child abuse and “individuals, churches or other religious bodies that cover up, ignore or otherwise contribute to or condone the abuse of children.”

• Hate crimes. While urging Americans to “avoid acts of hatred and violence toward homosexuals and transgendered people” and calling on Christians to love and show compassion for them, the resolution condemned the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007.

The proposed law, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives and has been introduced in the Senate, provides a level of protection for homosexuals and transgendered people, the resolution noted. But it said hate crimes legislation “violates the U.S. Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of equal protection under the law” and “criminalizes beliefs as well as action, creating a form of thought crime.”

The resolution expressed “profound disappointment” in House members who passed the law and called on the Senate to “reject this and any other bill that creates a special protected status for certain groups.”

• Racism. Marking the 150th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dred Scott Decision—which declared African-Americans “had no rights which the white man was bound to respect”—the resolution affirmed the Declaration of Independence’s affirmation that “all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.”

Messengers repudiated the Dred Scott Decision and affirmed the SBC’s 1995 vote to “unwaveringly denounce racism, in all its forms, as deplorable sin.” They also commended churches that reach out to all people, regardless of race, and they urged other churches to follow that example.

• Pastors, culture and civic duty. “There is a great need for a new generation of pastors to take the lead in courageously confronting an American culture and government that is hurtling downward to new depths of moral decadence,” the resolution noted. It cited “continued threats to the sanctity of human life, the sacredness of marriage between one man and one woman, and the fundamental freedom to express our faith in the public arena.”

It called on pastors to “preach the whole counsel of God, not only passionately inviting people to Jesus, but also prophetically declaring biblical truth concerning the burning moral issues that are being debated in the culture and government.”

It also encouraged them to model and promote “informed and active Christian citizenship among the membership of our churches.”

• Personal and corporate repentance. Citing Scriptures that condemn vindictiveness, bitterness, slander, sexual immorality and “failure to obey God,” the resolution called for “all Southern Baptists to humble ourselves before God” and “embrace a spirit of repentance, pursue face-to-face reconciliation where necessary and enter into a time of fasting and prayer for the lost.”

• Cooperative giving. A resolution offered by the presidents of the SBC’s two mission boards lauded record receipts for the convention’s Cooperative Program unified budget and its home and foreign missions offerings. In response, messengers expressed appreciation to Southern Baptists for their faithful and generous support for convention funding.

They also thanked God for “allowing us to join him on mission” and thanked churches, associations, state conventions, SBC organizations and Woman’s Missionary Union for “their faithful partnership and diligent promotion of missions support.”

• Appreciation. Messengers thanked Baptists from San Antonio, as well as convention officers, other leaders and program personnel.

The committee declined to act on several suggestions on two topics that received intense discussion when messengers acted on motions—glossolalia, or the practice of “private prayer language,” and the ability of the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message doctrinal statement to serve as a “guide” for SBC agencies and institutions.

Harris and Lawley said those topics did not meet the committee’s criteria for action.

“We did not feel the resolutions committee was the Supreme Court to address theology for the convention,” Harris said. “We didn’t want to precipitate a debate.”

Glossolalia and the Baptist Faith & Message are topics best suited to be handled by motions, not resolutions, Lawley added.

“Motions direct” convention entities to take actions, while “resolutions reflect” the messengers’ beliefs, she explained.

“Resolutions are intended to reflect consensus of Southern Baptists on issues, not lead the way,” she said, adding glossolalia and the Baptist Faith & Message proposals did not fall within the committee’s purview.

Posted: 6/14/07

SBC strategist for gender issues
coordinates ministry to homosexuals

By Trennis Henderson

Kentucky Western Recorder

SAN ANTONIO—Pastor Bob Stith—who said God convicted him more than a decade ago about his judgmental attitutudes and how he condemned homosexuals—has been named Southern Baptists’ national strategist for gender issues.

Stith, pastor of Carroll Baptist Church in Southlake, Texas, since 1970, accepted the newly created position effective June 1. LifeWay Christian Resources is funding the post, and the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission is providing administrative oversight.

Stith’s primary emphasis will be to model a ministry to gays that goes beyond condemnation. “When pastors and churches aren’t sure how to deal with it, they usually deal with it wrongly,” Stith said. “I understand because I was there; I did those things.”

LifeWay President Emeritus Jimmy Draper called the strategist role the “culmination of many years of planning and praying.” Draper and ERLC President Richard Land were named co-chairs of a task force on ministry to homosexuals in 2002. The task force was charged with being “proactive and redemptive in reaching out to those who struggle with same-sex attractions,” Land explained.

While affirming biblical texts that label homosexuality as sin, Draper said that belief “does not relieve us of the loving response and ministry to those who face this kind of temptation.”

As SBC leaders sought a national strategist, Land said Stith’s congregation “is one of those churches that is most active in reaching out proactively and redemptively.” He added that Stith “is the one who really has had a vision for how churches can do this.”

Stith, a graduate of Samford University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, said God convicted him in 1994 about his attitude of “condemnation and judgment” in his preaching about homosexuality. People struggling with same-sex attractions “would not have come to me for help,” he acknowledged.

“One of the things God really put on my heart is the fact that there are so many people in our churches who struggle with this and they do so silently” because of fear of condemnation and rejection, Stith told reporters in a June 13 press conference during the Southern Baptist Convention.

Responding to a question about anticipated ministry strategies, Stith said: “We don’t specifically have an outline of telling churches this is what you do. We are more interested in helping them learn how to receive people who are struggling with this.

“What our church did from the beginning was for me to acknowledge that my attitude was wrong,” he explained. “We should reach out to them with compassion. … Basically what we have done is to love them with the love of Christ.”

One of the goals to help Southern Baptist churches minister effectively to homosexuals “is to show them a Baptist church that looks a lot like their Baptist church” that is involved in effective ministry efforts, Land added.

Convention leaders plan to “develop a strategy and we’re going to seek to be ministering redemptively and compassionately to this issue, which is a problem in a lot of our churches,” Land said. He added that “the pulpit is not immune” to the issue of same-sex attractions.

Stith noted many churches separate homosexuality “as a sin that is different from other sins, and consequently we isolate” individuals who struggle with same-sex attractions. By contrast, he added, “I don’t think God makes a distinction between sins."

While agreeing that “I don’t think there’s a hierarchy of sins in terms of separating us from our fellowship with God,” Land said, “I think that clearly the Bible is very specific in its condemnation of homosexual behavior.”

As SBC leaders seek to encourage and equip churches to minister “to those who are struggling with unwanted same-sex attractions,” the SBC constitution prohibits convention involvement by churches “which act to affirm, approve or endorse homosexual behavior.” Additionally, the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message statement of faith urges Christians to oppose “all forms of sexual immorality, including adultery, homosexuality and pornography.”

Noting that churches don’t affirm pedophilia or adultery, Land said, “Unfortunately, we do have some churches in the Southern Baptist Convention that have attempted to affirm a homosexual lifestyle.

“We’re at a rather odd moment in our nation’s cultural history where some things are clearly condemned by Scripture that some churches want to openly affirm,” Land added. “I think that’s the reason for singling out” homosexuality as an issue for Southern Baptist churches to address, he explained.

Posted: 6/14/07

Zinn: Catch vision for Great Commission

By Bill Webb

Word & Way

SAN ANTONIO—California Pastor Rob Zinn bemoaned Southern Baptist baptism statistics and challenged messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting to catch a vision for winning people to Christ.

In the annual convention sermon, Zinn, senior pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Highland, Calif., charged that believers have fallen short of the demands of the Great Commission, and many churches deliberately have chosen not to grow.

“God’s never given us the right to vote down what he has called us to do,” Zinn said. “Our commission is to go. There is nothing in the Bible that says you should stay within the four walls (of the church) and the community will come.”

He told messengers that the most recent annual baptism total among Southern Baptists was 364,826 — fewer than the year before, despite a challenge for Southern Baptist churches to baptize 1 million people in a year.

“We’re in desperate need of revival,” he said. “We’re in desperate need of the Holy Spirit filling us, our churches and our convention so we will be what we need to be.”

Southern Baptists biggest barrier to winning people to Christ may be their attitude, Zinn said. “Why are we baptizing less people? The answer is, ‘Our attitudes stink.’”

He suggested churches in the 21st century must learn four attitudes prevalent in the first century church.

“First, we’re going to have to take the Great Commission seriously,” he said. God took the Great Commission seriously; the devil takes the Great Commission seriously.

“Our problem is our attitude toward the word of God. When it takes 45 Southern Baptists a full year to baptize one person, we’re not serious about it.

Second, Christians must take the Great Commission personally, Zinn said. It is not enough to give money so that people far away can come to Christ. Believers must be active personally in evangelizing their own communities.

“Too many pastors do all their evangelism on Sunday morning,” he charged. “We need to make evangelism a lifestyle. Pastor, you’re going to have to get in your car” and go to visit people, he said.

Third, Christians must approach the task of evangelism enthusiastically, Zinn said.

“God said he would go with you and will empower you,” he said, using the Holy Spirit to spark enthusiasm by providing a vision for the task and an attitude of love toward others.

Finally, the believer must approach his task prayerfully, he said. In the early church, “it was prayer that turned fear to boldness. Prayer is where the power comes from.”

Prayer is necessary to winning the spiritually lost to Christ, Zinn stressed.

Zinn called for churches to be flexible in their methodology if they are going to effectively reach out to the tounger generation. “We’ve got to be willing to sing some of their music if we’re going to keep them in our churches.

“My heart is bursting for a generation of people that is lost and dying and going to hell,” Zinn said. “It’s not about you; it’s about (Christ)…, and he loved them all. Let’s get them.”

Posted: 6/13/07

SBC re-elects Page, hears motions
on agency policies, clergy sex abuse

By Greg Warner & Charlie Warren

Associated Baptist Press & Arkansas Baptist

SAN ANTONIO (ABP)—Frank Page was re-elected without opposition to the traditional second one-year term as president of the Southern Baptist Convention during the first day of the denomination’s annual meeting, which also featured efforts to curb clergy sexual abuse and to prevent hiring criteria that are more restrictive than the SBC’s official doctrinal statement.

Page, pastor of First Baptist Church of Taylors, S.C., was elected last year on a pledge to oppose more restrictive parameters for participation in the 16 million-member denomination. Last year, the SBC’s fundamentalist establishment opposed Page’s election, which they saw as a threat to the SBC’s 27-year rightward shift.

In his presidential message before his re-election June 12, he called for an end to “factionalism” in the denomination.

Meanwhile, in the early hours of the two-day convention, messengers heard a motion to prevent SBC agency trustees from adopting policies that are more restrictive than the Baptist Faith & Message doctrinal statement approved in 2000.

The motion, presented by Rick Garner of Liberty Heights Church in Liberty Township, Ohio, says the faith statement “is sufficient in its current form to guide trustees in their establishment of policies and practices of entities of the convention.”

If approved, the motion apparently would prevent SBC agencies from enacting more strict parameters, such as the controversial guideline that excludes missionary candidates who speak in tongues and “private prayer languages” from serving with the International Mission Board. The motion was scheduled for debate during the evening session.

Another motion, offered by Oklahoma pastor Wade Burleson, asks the SBC Executive Committee to study the establishment of a national registry of “clergy and staff who have been credibly accused of, personally confessed to, or legally been convicted of sexual harassment or abuse.”

The motion, which follows months of revelations about sex abuse in Baptist churches, was referred to the Executive Committee for action.

Another motion to distance the SBC from the “emerging church” movement, was introduced but not acted upon yet.

Page was nominated for a second term by Dale Morell, pastor of Maine Street Baptist Church in Brunswick, Maine.

“He’s a special man, Morell said. “He’s got a passion for souls, for the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

In his presidential address, Page challenged Baptists to lay aside factionalism and cold-hearted legalism to develop a new strategic battle plan that goes beyond doctrinal rightness to speak the truth in love to a lost world.

To illustrate his message from Psalm 51:1-13, Page referred to France just prior to World War II. French leaders, particularly André Maginot, minister of war, poured enormous financial resources into a state-of-the-art defense system along the nation’s eastern border, with the exception of dense forests they considered impenetrable.

When war began, the German army marched through the forest and Paris fell within three weeks, Page noted. The Maginot line of defense had failed.

“We (Southern Baptists) have built our own Maginot line,” Page said. “We have built wonderful entities, programs, agencies and great churches, thinking we can hold off defeat of the enemy. But the enemy has outflanked us over and over.”

Baptists are guilty of an arrogance with which God is not pleased, he said. Page charged that instead of transforming the culture, it has transformed Southern Baptists.

“We hold our battle lines against flesh and blood,” he said. “Is this our only line of defense? … We are not the only game in town. … God has blessed us for a reason—not that we will become spiritually obese, but so we will be on mission for him.”

Satan has robbed Southern Baptists of integrity, fellowship, passion for the lost, the joy of salvation, humility, unity, relevance and a sense of godly balance, Page asserted.

“We have lost much and there is more to be lost,” he warned, adding the problem in the convention starts with each individual Southern Baptist.

“Where’s the joy God gave you when you were saved?” he asked. “You may be doctrinally right, but you sure don’t look very happy about it.”

King David, who wrote Psalm 51, “was painfully aware of his inadequacies. … We strut while we’re still sitting down,” Page said.

“This convention does not belong to you, and it sure does not belong to me. It is God’s. … Though we have significant differences, will you take my hand, and let’s work together to reach the lost for Christ?”

God wants Southern Baptists to speak the truth in love, whether they blog or don’t blog, Page said.

“When we speak the truth without love, it leads to a cold-hearted legalism the world sees as characteristic of Christians,” he warned.

To regain the victory, Page urged Southern Baptists to get right with God, confess our sins, plead for forgiveness and “a spiritual heart transplant,” and seek revival.

“Our baptisms languish in a day when people are receptive to the gospel,” he said. “It’s because we have not been right before God. … We’ve been fighting the wrong battles.”

The convention has returned to theological rightness, but it risks becoming irrelevant, he said. “If we do not seek the hand of God, our churches will be right but empty. … The early church was met with persecution. … We are met with a yawn.”

Posted: 6/13/07

Cooperative Program definition
sparks messenger debate

By Trennis Henderson

Kentucky Western Recorder

SAN ANTONIO—A proposal to define what constitutes Cooperative Program giving sparked lengthy debate during the opening session of the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, including a charge that the measure “goes against historical Baptist polity.”

The recommendation from the SBC Executive Committee defines the denomination’s 82-year-old giving plan as “Southern Baptists’ unified plan of giving through which cooperating Southern Baptist churches give a percentage of their undesignated receipts in support of their respective state conventions and the Southern Baptist Convention missions and ministries.”

SBC Executive Committee President Morris Chapman noted, “There has been no approved definition of the Cooperative Program through these years.”

Southern Baptists “always considered the Cooperative Program since 1925 to be a process, a delivery system that is contributed through the state and then to the SBC,” he said. Designated funds given directly to the SBC still are distributed according to the national CP funding formula but are not counted as Cooperative Program contributions.

The proposal follows a measure on strengthening Cooperative Program giving adopted last year by SBC messengers. From 1980 to 2006, the percentage of undesignated funds given by local churches through Cooperative Program plunged from 10.7 percent to 6.6 percent.

At least 10 messengers recognized at microphones throughout the convention hall raised questions or voiced concerns about the proposal.

Ron Wilson of Thousand Oaks, Calif., warned that the recommendation “seems to be establishing a connectionalism that historically has not existed in Baptist life.”

“What if you have three entities in a state all desiring to give to the Cooperative Program?” he asked. “In our state, we’re forming a new convention for the purpose of giving a greater percentage to the national convention. Will we be allowed to do that or will we have to go back to the old convention?”

Michael Lewis, vice chairman of the Executive Committee’s Cooperative Program subcommittee, responded that if a new state convention entity is recognized by the SBC, contributions through the entity will be considered CP gifts.

Currently in Southern Baptist life, the SBC has recognized breakaway fundamentalist conventions in Texas and Virginia. A breakaway moderate convention in Missouri is not recognized by the SBC.

Lewis emphasized that the primary focus of the proposal is to acknowledge “local churches giving through their state convention to support the Cooperative Program.”

Mark Dever of Washington, D.C., asked if the proposed definition would impact current constitutional wording that allows cooperating churches to qualify for additional messengers “for each $250 paid to the work of the convention during the fiscal year preceding the annual meeting.”

“The recommendation does not affect that,” Lewis said, noting that designated gifts qualify as support for convention causes.

“Are we saying that if you give to the Executive Committee or to Nashville that you can bypass your state convention and it still count as Cooperative Program funds?” asked Bill Henard of Lexington, Ky.

“No, it does not,” Lewis responded. “It simply codifies all that we are doing and have been doing as Southern Baptists through the Cooperative Program.”

Tim Rogers of North Carolina asked whether contributions to a giving plan in the North Carolina Baptist Convention that includes designated giving to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship would qualify as Cooperative Progam giving.

“No,” Lewis said. “We do not receive funds from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.”

After several other questions, Wilson returned to the microphone to propose tabling the measure until next year.

“I think it needs greater thought for there’s more issues than just what you’re dealing with,” Wilson said. “I also believe that historically we are establishing a precedent that absolutely goes against historical Baptist polity and establishes a connectionalism that was not meant in the beginning.”

Urging convention leaders to “table this motion and bring it back next year with better wording,” Wilson added, “This is a very dangerous thing we are doing here.”

SBC President Frank Page ruled Wilson’s motion to table out of order. Messengers then voted to approve the proposed Cooperative Program definition.

In other Executive Committee-related business, messengers:

• Approved a 2007-08 CP allocation budget of $200,601,536, an increase of more than $4.6 million from the current budget.

• Requested LifeWay Christian Resources to “compile additional statistics relating to Calvinism, the emergent church, elder rule and other topics of interest and discussion in Southern Baptist life.”

• Approved three future convention sites: Orlando, Fla., in 2010; Phoenix in 2011; and New Orleans in 2012. Some messengers voiced concern about waiting five years to visit New Orleans, citing ongoing ministry needs and witnessing opportunities in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Convention officials responded that logistics and facility options make it necessary to wait until 2012.

• Gave final approval to a constitutional amendment that requires a two-year waiting period before former board trustees or Executive Committee members are eligible to serve again. There previously was a one-year wait.

Posted: 6/13/07

Chapman urges SBC: Don’t make
every doctrinal issue a ‘political football’

By Trennis Henderson

Kentucky Western Recorder

SAN ANTONIO—Warning that Southern Baptists “must not make every doctrinal issue a crusade or political football,” SBC Executive Committee President Morris Chapman declared it is a waste of time to “harshly debate disputable doctrines that lead to destructive distractions.”

Chapman offered his assessment in the wake of widespread debate about recent actions by the Southern Baptist International Mission Board regarding believer’s baptism and private prayer language.

“We have no right to judge others with whom we disagree about secondary and tertiary doctrines,” Chapman insisted. “Only God is our judge.

“But we do have the right to engage in spirited debate where we differ,” he noted, adding that such debate should reflect the Spirit and mind of Christ and “honor Christ in every thought and deed and word.”

Without directly referencing the mission board or specific doctrinal issues, Chapman proposed “two suggestions for future consideration.”

“Any practice instituted by an entity in the Southern Baptist Convention that has the force of doctrine should be in accord with the Baptist Faith & Message and not exceed its boundaries unless and until it has been approved” by convention messengers, he said to the applause of the crowd.

“Secondly, if an entity … adopts a confession of faith separate and distinct from the Baptist Faith & Message and it includes a doctrine unsupported by our confessional statement, the entity should request approval from the convention prior to including the doctrine it its confession.”

The SBC Executive Committee “acknowledged that the Baptist Faith & Message is the only consensus statement of doctrinal beliefs approved by the Southern Baptist Convention and as such is sufficient in its current form to guide trustees in their establishment of policies and practice,” Chapman said.

The Baptist Faith & Message, first adopted in 1925 and revised in 1963 and 2000, “has long been the doctrinal umbrella under which we send missionaries to foreign fields and preachers into local pulpits,” he noted. The faith statement “is not a creed,” he added, “but it is a confession of our core beliefs of Southern Baptists.”

Revising the Baptist Faith & Message “should not be lightly regarded, nor should our confessional statement be revised year after year,” Chapman said. “However, if we believe a doctrine is a part of the core belief system of Southern Baptists, it should be in the Baptist Faith & Message.

“Only a few years ago, it seemed sufficient for our missionaries and convention leaders to sign the Baptist Faith & Message as a statement of loyalty to Christ and to the convention,” he remarked. “Now other doctrines are beginning to be required aside from our adopted confession. It causes one to ask, ‘Where does it end?’”

Insisting that his proposals “do not infringe upon the responsibilities of trustees to govern an entity of our convention,” Chapman told SBC messengers, “We must come together in one spirit over the core beliefs that we hold in common and learn to engage in healthy debate about varied interpretations about other doctrinally-related Scripture.

“Otherwise,” he cautioned, “we shall spend our time arguing among ourselves while thousands, even millions, die without a Savior.”

Emphasizing that the SBC’s “conservative resurgence” launched in 1979 “clarified and solidified what we think about the authority of God’s word,” the former convention  president said Southern Baptists are now “struggling with the temptation  to lay down certain interpretations for defining a true Southern Baptist compared to a maverick Southern Baptist.”

“Holiness, humility and righteousness are the traits that will rescue Southern Baptists for another day,” Chapman declared. “We desperately need to pray for God to send his Pentecostal power upon us as he did for the early Christians.”

Describing the baptism of the Holy Spirit as “a one-time experience,” he added, “We are baptized by the Holy Spirit when we are saved; we are filled daily by abandoning our will to the will of the Father.”

Warning that God “will not pour out his power if we are disobedient to his word,” Chapman concluded,  “Both in our doctrinal convictions and our attitudes toward one another, let us go before the Lord to pray, ‘God forgive me.’”

–

Posted: 6/13/07

Bush thanks SBC for support

By Tony W. Cartledge

Biblical Recorder

SAN ANTONIO—Judging by the reaction he received at their annual meeting, President George W. Bush’s popularity remains strong among Southern Baptists, whom he thanked for their support June 13.

Bush was greeted with a standing ovation of sustained applause, punctuated by whistles and cheers, as he spoke via a live satellite feed to messengers attending the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in San Antonio.

Bush expressed appreciation for Southern Baptists’ Christian witness, support of religious liberty, and good works such as hunger ministries and disaster relief.

“You’ve made our nation stronger,” he said.

“I also appreciate that Southern Baptists are supporting our brave men in uniform and their families,” he said, pausing in response to exuberant applause.

“I appreciate the fact that Southern Baptists understand the importance of fair-minded and impartial judges to our democracy,” he added. “I was proud to nominate John Roberts and Sam Alito to the Supreme Court, and I will continue to nominate good judges who will interpret the law and not legislate from the bench.”

Again, the president had to pause for applause.

Bush thanked Southern Baptists for supporting “a culture of life,” and reiterated ways in which he has worked to oppose abortions and the destruction of human embryos for research purposes.

Bush thanked Southern Baptists for their support of a “True Love Waits” effort in Uganda that has been credited with reducing HIV infections, and highlighted his support of programs designed to reduce malaria and HIV infections in Africa.

The president singled out “my friend Richard Land,” president of the SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, for helping draw attention to the Sudan’s genocidal actions in Darfur.

“The people of Darfur are crying out for our help,” he said, and Southern Baptists and America “will not turn away.”

“God has blessed our nation with prosperity and great abundance,” Bush said. “I firmly believe, like you, that we should use our resources to help those at need here at home and help those in need abroad.”

The president congratulated Southern Baptists for “meeting the needs of broken souls” with compassion and courage, “living out the call to spread the gospel and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

Posted: 6/13/07

Messengers raise questions
about IMB finances, trustees

By Grace Thornton

The Alabama Baptist

SAN ANTONIO—International Mission Board President Jerry Rankin presented an upbeat report to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting about advancement of the gospel. But he still was unable to escape concerns addressed by messengers during the Tuesday night session.

A concern about embezzlement resurfaced when messenger Ron McGowin of Fairfield, Texas, questioned the outcome of a motion he introduced at last year’s annual meeting. McGowin’s motion had called for an external audit of the Central Asia Region’s monetary dealings between 1999-2005.

A note in the Book of Reports said a 2004 audit and “supplemental procedures” on the issue led to “appropriate action” taken by the board.

But McGowin, pastor of First Baptist Church, Fairfield, Texas, asked, “Why have the IMB trustees decided against the use of external audits?”

Rankin responded that an internal audit had been performed as well as an audit by an outside firm.

“The trustees were involved in the thorough review of this. Policies have been put in place to prevent this from happening again,” he said, noting that the board is honoring its “fiscal responsibility to the convention.”

Another motion presented last year regarding trustee rights brought no discussion from Rankin or questions from messengers but was addressed in the book of reports.

The motion, presented by trustee Wade Burleson of Oklahoma, called for an ad hoc committee appointed by the SBC Executive Committee to investigate certain aspects of trustee protocol, including suppression of dissent and coercion into “a particular course of action.”

The Book of Reports noted that the IMB board of trustees has “no authority” to question or investigate several of his concerns, including coercion and the nominating process of IMB trustees. It also noted that “all trustees have opportunity … to express and advocate minority opinions” but that “unified public support” is expected after a majority vote has been reached.

In regards to missions efforts, 2006 was a banner year for the board, Rankin said, noting a record Lottie Moon Christmas Offering topping $150 million.

“Because of your faithfulness in giving, 784 new missionaries were appointed and sent out to the ends of the earth,” he said. “Thank you on behalf of the millions of lost people.”

In 2006, the IMB reached 104 previously unengaged people groups with the gospel as well as seeing 23,486 new churches planted and 475,072 people make first-time professions of faith in Christ, Rankin said.

And in the North Africa Middle East region—a “very difficult, difficult area” for the past decade—has seen more new missionaries appointed this year than the last three years combined, he said.

“We press forward driven by the vision that all peoples of the world have the opportunity to hear and understand and respond to the message of Jesus in their own language and own culture,” Rankin said.

The IMB’s strategic plan includes getting the gospel to the remaining 2,029 unreached people groups by 2010. It also includes growing the board’s missionary force to 8,000 worldwide. The IMB currently has more than 5,000 missionaries in the field.

“Thank you for praying, thank you for giving and thank you for going,” said trustee chairman John Floyd. “You’ve given more than ever before, and you’re not only giving, you’re going.”

After the business report, messengers heard from several IMB missionaries and Christians from overseas, including a pastor from Turkmenistan, who talked about how the gospel is “enduring, even thriving, in the face of persecution.” The missionary to Turkmenistan detailed for messengers what it is like to be tortured and threatened for his Christian beliefs, sharing how God is faithful to save.

Tom Elliff, IMB senior vice president, closed the night with an altar call for messengers to commit their lives to a role in missions. Hundreds responded.

“This convention tonight is going to end at the altar,” he said. “God has a yoke for you in terms of world missions that perfectly fits you. I rejoice in the lives that will be reached because of this moment.”

Rankin said Southern Baptists have been equipped with all they need to reach a lost world. “It’s a story, a simple story. We need to share it,” he said.